BIOS of Lenovo Yoga 2 11, need its early version  

townsbg said:

@MisterEd Classic shell has been replaced by open shell. It is exactly the same so I'm not sure what they changed. It is also the only way I can tolerate 8.1. Open Shell 4.4.169 Download | TechSpot

I though I was missing something so I uninstalled ClassicShell and installed OpenShell in its place. I really couldn't find any difference.

siliconbeaverI wish you would reconsider. Adding OpenShell to Windows 8.1 really makes a difference. Not 100% like Windows 7 but close enough to be tolerable.

Like I said in a previous post, once you install OpenShell you can mostly ignore the dreadful Modern menu and its apps.

The original Windows 8.1 Start Button is almost useless. However, you can right-click on it and get a configuration menu.



After OpenShell is installed the Start Button now acts similar to how it is in Windows 7.
Click on Start Button



Now you can see the familiar Start Menu
Click on All Programs...



And you see a list of Programs



In the Start Menu click on Control Panel...



And you see the familiar Control Panel



If you right-click on the original Windows 8.1 Start Menu button you got a configuration menu. This no longer works that way with the OpenShell. However, you can still bring up the configuration menu by pressing the Windows-key + X-key.

@MisterEd

Thanks,

I did try to use Win8.1 several days last week. trying to deal with it.

Modern mode (with many apps) is indeed fancy (I didn't use Win8.1 in past. It's new to me). however, I clicked many sites (news, finance, whether, , ,), the links are broken. or took too long time to Open.

Traditional Windows desktop mode.
I tested Office97/2007/2010. Among Win7, 8.1 and 10, Win7 is best. Win10 seemed ok. Win8.1, for somehow, was slowest in my test (Yoga RAM only 4GB). This was my only Win8.1. not much experience.
Eventually, I thought, either back to old Win7 (easily use for me), or Win10, a relatively new and stable computer (my son's Lenovo Win11 gets blue screen occasionally).

townsbg said:

@MisterEd Classic shell has been replaced by open shell. It is exactly the same so I'm not sure what they changed....

MisterEd said:

I though I was missing something so I uninstalled ClassicShell and installed OpenShell in its place. I really couldn't find any difference....

The developer of ClassicShell decided to call it a day at the end of 2017...

Sad news, everyone.
After months of deliberation, I have decided to stop the development of Classic Shell....

...So, moving forward, I am making the latest version of Classic Shell open-source and adding it back to SourceForge ... where it all began. I encourage other people to fork it and go with it....

Classic Shell • View topic - Classic Shell no longer in development. Source code released

...and that's where OpenShell took up the reigns and moved forward. For copyright reasons they had to use a new name.

siliconbeaver said:

@MisterEd
Thanks,
I did try to use Win8.1 several days last week. trying to deal with it.
Modern mode (with many apps) is indeed fancy (I didn't use Win8.1 in past. It's new to me). however, I clicked many sites (news, finance, whether, , ,), the links are broken. or took too long time to Open.
Traditional Windows desktop mode.
I tested Office97/2007/2010. Among Win7, 8.1 and 10, Win7 is best. Win10 seemed ok. Win8.1, for somehow, was slowest in my test (Yoga RAM only 4GB). This was my only Win8.1. not much experience.
Eventually, I thought, either back to old Win7 (easily use for me), or Win10, a relatively new and stable computer (my son's Lenovo Win11 gets blue screen occasionally).

I first installed Windows 8 Pro on a laptop in 2013. I did a dual-boot so I also kept the existing Windows 7 Pro on it. I was unhappy about the lack of a real start menu so I installed Classic Shell on it. It was also annoying that the computer booted to the Modern Menu since I really wanted to use the regular desktop mode. Fortunately Classic Shell has an option to boot to the regular desktop mode. I tried experimenting with the Modern menu. You can add your own programs to it or delete one you don't like. Eventually I got bored with it and ignored it most of the time. The following year Windows 8.1 was offered as a free upgrade so updated to it. Windows 8.1 was an improvement but not enough. About five years ago I replaced Windows 8.1 Pro by doing the free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. I have no regrets doing that.

Note this laptop is 12 years old, has a dual-core Intel CPU, 4 GB RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. It also currently has Office 2013 Pro with Windows 10. For Windows 7 it has Free Office 2021. It does work well with both Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Currently I have a least one computer with Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8,1 and Windows 10. One computer was upgraded to Windows 11 but after 10 days was returned to Windows 10. My favorite right now by far is Windows 10.

As far as I know you can still do a free upgrade of either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. You might consider that if you are unhappy with Windows 8.1. However, how well your computer runs on Windows 10 is for you to decide. In any case always make a backup of your computer before you do this in case you want to go back to what you had.

Below, is a screenshot of the Start menu on my laptop that came with Windows 10. Note to the right is the remnant of what was the Modern menu in Windows 8. It is mainly tied to the Microsoft App Store. I have used it occasionally but not much anymore.

I would think,
any SSD is ok to go Win10
any hdd, better stay with Win7
(Win11 has much tougher requirement for hardware)

Thank you for Win10 upgrade information. my new Win10 is NOT registered yet.
Can I do a Win10 clean-install after upgrade from Win7/8.1. or have to first install Win7/8.1, then upgrade every re-install. I didn't try yet (What I read, Win8.1/10 register BIOS. hence I would think clean-install ok)

(This Win7 on UEFI is my headache, still trying a combo of SIW2 (Updated Win 7 installation media) and manatails (UefiSeven), freezing up after reboot and rename, , ,. If no go, will take Win10 then register)

After you upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 check to see if it has been activated. If it is it will have received a digital license that Microsoft saves on its servers. Once it has received the digital license you can do a clean install any time and it will activated automatically.

For example, here is a screenshot from the laptop that received the free upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro.

Settings > Update & Security > Activation on the old laptop. At the upper right you can see Windows has been activated with a digital license.

This one is marked "Solved".

yes, @MisterEd
It's noticed, "Windows is activated with a digital license" when a clean-install done of Windows 10 OS (but Win10 couldn't recognize my Win7 GPT disk and data on the disk)

Sunday eventually I got BIOS UEFI boot and Win7 re-installed on yoga. hence no need of its early BIOS version.

Win/7/10 OS both look good for Yoga.
at this time, image size is the difference I can tell. Win7 clean-install image is 5-6 GB. Win 10 is some 23 GB. nearly 4X difference. (I save/there is a copy on the same disk. so its size matters)